How I Used My CSA: Week 17

Week 17: bok choy, Yukon Gold potatoes, portobello caps, heirloom tomatoes, mixed sweet peppers, sweet onions, dumpling squash, and delicata squash.

This week's half share from Lancaster Farm Fresh had a share of two delicata squashes, plus a share of one dumpling squash. I meant to swap the one dumpling squash out (two squashes total is plenty for us), but one of the delicata squashes was so stubby, it looked like the dumpling squash, so I messed up and put the wrong one back. Whoops.
So happy to still be getting tomatoes. Summer, don't leave me, yet! The reddish purple tomato in the bunch looked to be a Cherokee Purple, which is one of my favorite tomato varieties.

And, as far as the bagel debate in the city goes, we get ours (a dozen every other week) from South Street Bagels on 3rd St. out of convenience of location, and because they are great.
And, while I like squash just fine, the sight of these in my haoul made me a little sad. Fall (and winter), I'm not ready for you!

We halved and roasted the dumpling and delicata squash, then filled them with a cinnamon and cardamom spiced quinoa salad studded with dried cranberries, plus onions and peppers from the CSA. I used this recipe as the inspiration. The cooked skins of dumpling and delicata squash are tender enough to eat, so don't miss out on all those nutrients and fiber!We roasted the seeds from the squash, and I was going to top the quinoa-stuffed squash with a few, but the seed-and-nut human vacuum sucked them up before dinner was done. A few years ago when everyone would not shut up about pho (they still won't), I was sad and lonely because I couldn't find vegetarian pho in restaurants. Then Cathy over at the blog gas.tron.o.my posted her mother's recipe for vegetarian pho. I jumped on that recipe within hours, and have been using it ever since. Moms do not lie!

This rendition on Cathy's mom's pho includes the bok choy and portobello caps from the CSA. Remember last week when I mention that whole tomatoes freeze well? I used a few of those frozen Romas along with the yellow heirloom tomatoes, sweet peppers, and onions for an all-CSA chunky tomato sauce to go over spaghetti squash a friend grew.
Colcannon? I had never even heard of the Irish mash of potatoes and cabbage known as colcannon until I spied it a few years ago on some blog (I'm neither Irish, nor a big potato eater), but colcannon makes for a simple, stick-to-your-ribs meal. To make this dish more healthy, I use only a fraction of the butter called for in most colcannon recipes, use almond milk instead of milk, and keep the skins on the potatoes. A side of tempeh keeps it on the healthy tip, too.

How did you use your CSA or farmers' market haul?